Mind Sports South Africa's (MSSA) blog on competitive gaming in South Africa from proto-computer gaming all the way through to the most modern. For more about MSSA go to: https://www.facebook.com/mindsportssa/
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Tuesday, 28 July 2015

As in the past when
only the MSSA would stand up in SASCOC meetings and vote against
unsound policies, it seems as though only the MSSA is speaking out
against the Minister's proposed amendments to the Sport and
Recreation Act.

In a recent press
release by the MSSA, which was also apparently sent directly to the
Minister, the MSSA stated:

“In short it is
hard to believe that any lawyers actually wrote such amendments.

The grammar is poor, the concepts vague, in places in direct conflict with the country's constitution, encroaching on the powers of other legislation and ministries, and at times totally devoid of any meaningful definitions.
It is safe to say that many International Federations will at least
baulk at the level of government interference that will be the result of
these amendments. At the worst, such International Federations will
cease to have anything to do with South African National Federations
should these amendments come into play.
Also, as an unexpected outcome of such amendments, whereby both
administrators and athletes shall be criminalised, I expect here to be a
mass exodus of both from the sporting arena, which in turn, should shut
down most of the codes in the country.
Is that really what SRSA wants?
It is thus the MSSA's opinion that the proposed amendments be thrown
back to the Ministry and reworked.”

It is also believed that the MSSA has sent the comments to each and
every National Federation in the country, as well as to SASCOC, in
order to make them aware of the changes and to make them aware of the
effect that the amendments will have on all sport in South Africa.

So, again, the MSSA
like a noble knight upon a white charger, defends the many when those
who are far more capable, in terms of manpower, resources, etc.,
choose to remain silent!

The full MSSA comment on the
proposed amendments may be found on
http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/The-MSSAs-comment-on-proposed-changes-to-the-national-sports-and-recreation-act-20150727

Monday, 27 July 2015

On Saturday, 25 July 2015, the provinces of Gauteng and Mpumulanga
met to best each other in the game titles of CounterStrike: GO anf
DotA 2 at the picturesque Roedean School in Johannesburg.

After a brief
welcome by the MSSA's General Secretary, the eSports Chairman
handed out the awards of provincial colours to those gamers
who had not yet received such.

With the
formalities completed, the Chief umpire, Morizane Boyes, took
matters into her hands, the gamers took to their seats,
deliberations were done, and the games of the 2015 MWEB
Inter-Provincial between Gauteng and Mpumulanga began.

The air was
thick with tension!

Supporters had
come from Johannesburg, Pretoria and Witbank to witness the
clash.

Would the
younger team from Mpumulanga be able to match the more
experienced Gauteng team that was peppered with players from
the MWEB Protea eSports Team?

The Mpumulanga
Provincial team showed their character and put up a jolly good
fight, often thwarting the more experienced Gauteng team, but
the total onslaught proved too much for the newly formed
Mpumulanga team which eventually lost to a very much stronger
opponent.

The final
results were thus:

Game title

Gauteng

Mpumulanga

1st game

2nd game

1st game

2nd game

CounterStrike: GO

16

16

6

5

DotA 2

53

40

19

11

The players
that participated were:

Gauteng

Mpumalanga

Dota 2

VS

Dota 2

Name

Name

Claude van der Merwe

Hercules
Strydom

Michael Myburgh

Darryl van
der Westhuizen

Dirk van Velden

Jan Helmut
Luttig

Ryan Lancaster

Adrian
Jansen

Tertius de Bruin

Jacques
Kruger

CS:GO

VS

CS:GO

Name

Name

Johan Heymans

Etien Du
plesis

Michael Boucher

Michiel
Vorster

Cornel Venter

William
Glaeser

Duncan Smal

Garrith Adems

Christiaan Brummer

Gert Opperman

Both teams
still have face up against the KwaZulu Natal Provincial Teams
as well as the Western Cape Provincial Team.

There is a long
road ahead to determine which is the strongest province in
these two titles.

Sunday, 26 July 2015

1. Since school clubs are strictly controlled legal entities, school clubs do not have to have a constitution. Instead the clubs only require permission from the Principal and musty also have an Educator-in-Charge. The MSSA shall route all correspondence through the Educator-in-Charge. 2. Since school club's are part of the school, all monies must be handled by the school.

3. Fill in the following paperwork:

The Advice form – which also states the fees

Registration Forms for the Educator-in-Charge.

4. Deposit the annual affiliation fees for the club and the Educator-in-Charge into MSSA’s bank account

6. Send MSSA the following information (via fax or e-mail):

Proof of payment of all fees

The completed Advice Form

All completed registration forms

7. Please confirm with an MSSA official that the documentation was received and that all is in order

8. Await acknowledgement of application from MSSA, after which the club is registered

9. Determine if any of your club’s members wish to serve as MSSA officials on any of the MSSA committees. If so, please contact MSSA to determine which positions are available and to acquire the appropriate forms.

Thursday, 23 July 2015

Roedean School in
Johannesburg will host the first ever Inter-provincial between
Gauteng and Mpumulanga eSports teams on Saturday, 25 July 2015 at
14H00.

The titles to be
played in the MWEB Inter-Provincial will be the DotA 2 and
CounterStrike: GO titles.

The choice of venue
is based largely on the fantastic facilities at the school. The
school prides itself on giving its learners access to the best
facilities in order to inspire them to greater heights.

Thus both the
Gauteng and Mpumulanga teams will be able to concentrate purely on
their tactics as they battle it out to determine which province is
the greater.

The Gauteng eSports
Provincial team is made up of the Tuks Mindsports Club for DotA, and
is drawn from BeZerK Gaming from Benoni for CounterStrike: GO. The
team Manager is Morne Snyman. Morne has expressed every confidence in
his team, and is confident that his team will win through.

The Mpumulanga
eSports Provincial Team is drawn from HTS Witbank for DotA 2 and from
the All Stars Club for CounterStrike: GO. The team manager is Louis
Brown.

Even though the the team from Mpumulanga is a much
younger team, spirits are high, and the team is determined to do its
best.

Monday, 20 July 2015

Game On Magazine (www.gameonmagazine.co.za) was created to support and nurture our love of Sport in South Africa, starting in our early school years and culminating in professional sport. We don't just talk about the people who are currently stars, we aim to share inspiring stories of how the "stars" got to be stars, and to start to tell the stories of the emerging stars of tomorrow and inspire the as yet to be stars to believe and become all they choose to be in the sport they are most passionate about.

Our magazine is constantly hearing how extremely talented and passionate young sports stars cannot participate in national and international competitions, or afford basic kit and uniforms for the National Teams, and whose big dreams are not realised because sports that are not considered a high priority, just do not receive the government or public funding they so desperately need to allow top athletes/sports girls/boys/men/women to represent their regions or country at high profile events. This is just wrong....... dream killing is wrong!

Many of these youngsters come from very low income families, and without sponsors, cannot participate at all.

Game On is choosing to make a difference......... We want to change the face of sport funding in South Africa and we need your help to do it.

We want to create an independent sports wealth fund that is not controlled by parastatals or organisations (that have their own agenda as to how to manage these funds). To do this (and show everyone IT CAN BE DONE), we are opening the floor to EVERYONE WHO LOVES SPORT to ask you to contribute whatever you can and feel inspired to, so that we can begin to make a difference in these amazing young people's lives.

If a million people just contribute $1, we can move mountains for so many talented young people.

So, do you have $1/R12 to spare?

Who will you be helping?

An example, Tasneem Cozyn, currently the U/18 Karate World Champion (and one of 5 children) does not have the funding to represent her country in 2 International competitions and attend 4 National competitions (she needs R 110 000 -R120 000 a year = $10 000). She is one of many we constantly hear about in our interviews that we profile. She is featured in our July issue:http://issuu.com/game-on-mag/docs/gom_july_15__issue_18

Another example is our SA U/18 Baseball Team has qualified to play in the IBAF 2015 World Cup but they have been told there is no funding for them to go and they have to self fund it or they cannot attend. This is TRAGIC! (Featured in Game On Magazine : http://issuu.com/game-on-mag/docs/gom_april__15_issue_15)

The funds we raise will support these people/teams to realise their sporting dreams of participating competitively and having the funding to do so.

If for any reason we don't reach our target, any funding received will still be used to support the people that we have become aware of, and we will publish our funding support on our website for public viewing.

The Impact

If we achieve the full amount, Game On will indeed be able to change the face of sports funding in South Africa for a huge number of young people! It will make possible what is currently believed to be impossible.

Risks & Challenges

We are perfectly positioned in the sporting world to connect with the youth through our magazine and free Magazine App to share the stories, and the successes achieved through this campaign. We are fortunate to not be affiliated to any sporting structures that can railroad the funding or instruct us as to how to distribute the funds. It is these very structures and organisations that have created the funding issues currently being faced by deserving youngsters and we will not be dictated to by any of them.

Our challenge is to ensure that the funds are well-managed, and that we have qualifying criteria in place to ensure that the funds are used for the purpose they are intended. All beneficiaries (if they are minors their parents will be carefully vetted) will complete a financial means assessment and application process that will be reviewed by a carefully selected panel of independant entrepreneurs (with no vested interest in the magazine or any sporting structure in South Africa). Once approved, funding will be internally managed and payments made to vendors on behalf of the person. No funds will be released directly to that person to self-manage.

Friday, 17 July 2015

On 11 July 2015 in
the Centenary Hall in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, the top 126
players from the gruelling seven week Sedgwick's Old Brown Sherry
Draughts League assembled to find out just who is the best player in
the Eastern Cape.

The air was
electric!

There was much to
play for.

This is the richest
draughts championship in South Africa with total prize monies of
R175,000.00.

The winner would
walk away with a staggering R50,000.00.

The determined
contestants battled it out with a great degree of sportsmanship.
Lubabalo Kondlo, the reigning South African champion, was there as
well to assist with the refereeing.

As the rounds
progressed, it became clear just who the front-runners were.

Mphumzi Mali, Vuyani
Mazibuko, Mvumeli Vengani, and Xolisa Promi pulled away from the pack
to show their dominance.

When the dust
settled, the top four were:

Pos

Name

Winnings

1st

Mphumzi Mali

R50,000.00

2nd

Vuyani Mazibuko

R20,000.00

3rd

Mvumeli Vengani

R10,000.00

4th

Xolisa Promi

R10,000.00

In addition to his
winnings, Mphumzi has also earned his Provincial Colours from Mind
Sports South Africa (MSSA).

It will indeed be
interesting to see who the winner is in the 2016 edition.

Monday, 13 July 2015

The
online Test Match held on Saturday. 11 July 2015. between the
best of
Austria's FIFA '15 players and the MSSA's FIFA '15 Schools
team forms
part of the MSSA's ambitious plans to improve
the overall standard of
gaming. The MWEB sponsored South African team all come from
Witbank,
and played from the BNKR Gaming House, 41 Duncan Street
(corner of
Mandela Avenue), Witbank.The
trio representing South Africa were none other than Bonga
Zwane, Kyle
Turnbull and Joline Bico.The
trio representing Austria are all seasoned veterans (Michael
Schachner, Mirza Jahic, and Herbert Schachner, and are
considered to
be among the best in the world. It
is this very type of competition that will help South African
eSports
rise up and take its place against the best in the world.The
first match was between Bonga Zwane (who used Germany) versus
Michael
Schachner (who used Spain). This was Bonga's first foray into
international gaming. Michael Schachner's pedigree is quite
different. Michael, currently a student in Vienna, has taken
second
place in one of the biggest tournaments in Vienna
(Comboclash), 5th
in the Bavaria Cup, and has won several other championships in
Vienna.Thus
the first match was proved to be a shock as Bonga as he tried
to work
out his opponent. Michael proved to be too much for Bonga and
beat
him 3 - 0 in the first game. However, in the second game Bonga
showed
his character and showed just how quickly he could learn by
countering his opponent at every turn to force a goal-less
draw. Who
knows what would happen if Bonga plays against Michael again!The
second match was between Kyle Turnbull (who used Argentina)
versus
Mirza Jahic (who used Portugal). Kyle is the current
undisputed South
African Champion for two consecutive years in a row, and has
just
embarked on his international career. Mirza
Jahic, on the other hand isa
Professional FIFA Player, the multiple Austrian FIFA
Champion and is
also Virtual Bundesliga Champion for2014.
Mirza also holdsa
Guinness World Record in Pro Evolution Soccer (PES).The
match was thus always going to be hard, very hard!The
first match was shock for Kyle, he couldn't figure
out how to
counter Mirza and suffered going down 0 – 4.However,
true to form, Kyle bounced back. In
the second game, Kyle detected the kink in Mirza's armour and
almost
drew the match. He fought the whole way through and put Mirza
on the
back foot for a portion of the game. Only in the last minute
of the
game did Mirza score once again to wrestle a 3-2 victory away
from
Kyle.The
third and final match was between Joline Bico (who used Spain
and
Argentina) versus Herbert Schachner (England and Belgium). It
was
Joline's first foray into international competition, and is
the only
female in the MWEB Team eSports South Africa for FIFA '15. Her
opponent, Herbert
"Suchender" Schachner has
twice finished second only toMirza
in both Austria andin
Bavaria. Herbert is too a winner of a number ofotherregional
cups in Vienna.Joline
pushed hard in her first game, and worked very well defending
against
Herbert’s continual attacks, but unfortunately 2 goals snuck
by
which gave Herbert a 2 – 0 victory.In
the second game, Joline was far more aggressive and almost
scored on
3 occasions. A lot was learnt from the last match and although
two
goals got through it was a much better performance.Even
though South Africa lost this first ever encounter against
Austria,
the MSSA remains upbeat about the development of its younger
gamers.
All three gamers gave it their all and showed great strength
of
character in the face of very stiff international competition.
The
MSSA is too very proud on how the players treated defeat.
Instead of
crumbling, all three players came back stronger than before.